VanillaG, on 27 December 2013 - 11:20 AM, said:
While they are less modifiable in respect to tonnage/crit space they are also more durable. Clan XL engines require 2 torso sections to be killed so if you spread the hardpoints out you still stay in the fight. Also, every clan mech can mount CASE for free (no tons/crits) so you can put ammo in places that you normally wouldn't so they can stay in the fight longer. When you take into account the upcoming tonnage limitations, the light Clan mechs can mount the same amount of firepower as a Medium with about the same speed. The Clans are biased towards carrying more firepower than you normally see in MWO and they will be forced to because of the fixed internals.
The only thing I would like to see changed is being able to change the amount/location of armor. Other than that, I am fine with how they are going about introducing the mechs. It makes them different without being overpowered which means all the IS mechs I have in the my hanger are not going to be obsolete when the Clans arrive.
The 'problem' is the overall game design. By creating battlemech deathmatch (Solaris) as the only style of play, they have effectively destroyed any possible way to balance the game.
If you turn the focus from "hey, I'm in a mech, here to kill until I die" to "Hey, I'm in a battlefield, I have a few mechs and tanks to make stuff happen" and design the game around that concept - repair and rearm costs become possible, IS mechs preserve much of their charm (particularly if you were to expand IS mechs to allow modules on individual weapon and structural components that reflect the diversity of IS equipment - which was merely lumped into categories for TT purposes - the AC5 chosen by one can be radically different from the AC5 used by another), and Clans can be inserted into the mix with their inherent advantages and disadvantages.
Most of the weapon balance issues work themselves out (even if the weapons are still 'not balanced like they should be' - the diversity of gameplay objectives makes it less palpable). Most of the "Why would I ever -not- run the most expensive designs?" work themselves out. Everything works better.
That said - Clans, as PGI has discussed implementing them - will be far more limited than IS 'mechs. The fixed ES and FF will throw excess critical spaces in your way while Double Heat Sinks get wedged in next to XL engines. It's going to be MechLab Tetris trying to customize things.
Not to mention - you have very little control over your available tonnage. No shifting of engine sizes, no removal of armor... for stock mechs like the TimberWolf - you're looking at something like 24 tons of pod space to play with. The rest is all heat sink and armor. I saw someone quote 30 tons - but when you remove the weapons it carries and their ammo - you come up with something like 24 tons. Seeing as that's pretty much the only thing PGI is going to allow you to remove from a Clan 'Mech - I don't see where the other 6 tons comes from.
Unless I missed a weapon system or two.
GODzillaGSPB, on 27 December 2013 - 11:22 AM, said:
Mods are mods and games are games. If I remember correctly it started as a Crysis mod and I did not own this game and was not willing to buy it in order to play the mod. I played the official games and cared about the franchise in terms of books, licenced games and so on.
Well, it doesn't really matter. What made me answer in the first place was my amazement as to call all those who said they care about the franchise yet haven't played MWLL "liars", which I find a bit "harsh" to say it nicely...
There is a difference between a 'game' and a 'mod' - though the distinction is becoming minor, at this point.
Generally speaking - a game is a licensed and monetized endeavor. Some games develop their own game 'engine' from the ground up - others use stock game engines (Unreal, CryEngine, Real Virtuality, Frostbite, etc) with varying degrees of access to the game's source code files (what is used to build the executable binary file) to tailor the engine's function to the game.
Many games today have very powerful scripting languages that are parsed into the game's RAM image at run-time. Basically - the game is programmed to read a file and expand its programming to follow the instructions in those scripts each time it is launched. This means very few games actually require source code access to the engine - and very versatile games can be built with absolutely no experience using a "programming language." Venturing too far outside of what the game is designed to handle, however, will make for scripts that do not make efficient use of hardware resources (Elder Scrolls modders have become all too familiar with what happens when you have too many and/or too complicated of a script).
Regardless - even if you are building your own game from the ground up - many of the various tools used to create visual assets for games (art, models, etc) have become highly standardized - many of the art resources one game uses can be almost literally added into another game engine with one click of the mouse (all conversions necessary being handled by a set of instructions for the computer). So, unless you are talking about a game that is attempting to pioneer something completely new - they tend to stick to these standards (and most of the new and innovative projects don't have to go against the standards, merely expand upon what has already been done - such as the projects into real-time dynamic IK solvers and real-time raytracing).
The success of projects like DayZ has illustrated that the line between "Mod" and "Game" will blur even further in the future. The tendency of game developers to release not-games that are fundamentally broken, these days, suggests that the market will soon shift to where large developers simply publish game engines and associated revisions while selecting mod projects around them to become licensed monetized endeavors. Studio development will become far more rare and be reserved for only the most precious of game titles.
All of that said, however, I agree that it is not really a practical viewpoint to state that those who love MechWarrior but have not played Living Legends are "liars."
To be quite honest - I never got the mod to work on my computer - and it wasn't much longer that they discontinued the project. Never played the Crysis game I bought to use it.
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